Coroner Salary

Coroner Salary In The US

Coroners are professionals who determine the nature and cause of deaths. Part of their job duties involve performing autopsies and toxicological reports that can help them determine the accurate cause of death of the patient, as well as weather it was accidental, natural or violent. As the website Indeed states, coroners have an average starting salary of approximately $45.000 a year.

Pay Scale In Different Parts Of The United States

Coroners are paid differently across the United States, not just because they have different experience and training but because of their geographical position as well. The Western area of the US is known to have provides higher salaries, with approximately $49,000 a year in California. At the opposite end, there is Louisiana, Hawaii and Washington DC which offered their coroners salaries of little over $30,000. New York pays its coroners with up to $55,000 a year, and in the MidWest the salaries are relatively low in South Dakota and Nebraska.

Coroner Job Description

As mentioned above, coroners are professionals who perform a series of medical examinations and autopsies on deceased people. It is their duty to inspect the body of the deceased person and to find either visible or empirical evidence that might indicate the cause of death. It often happens that the coroner’s duties extend beyond the autopsy room as they often identify human remains, they operate different crime scene equipment, they visit death scenes to get a deeper insight into how a certain person died, they supervise the transportation of the dead people and they even complete death certificates, after they have finished the autopsy.

Different US states have different requirements, and in some states if the death of a person has not been certified by the physician of the person in question, then the medical examiner or the coroner will take over and inspect the body. Also, the coroner is responsible with issuing the death certificate for those who die outside of their own state of residence.

Working as a coroner involves a set of skills, as it is important to understand that these professionals often work under very stressful conditions. It is very important for the coroner to pay great attention to detail as well.

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Becoming a coroner is not easy, given the high importance of this job. Education requirements are high as well, and those who want to take this path are highly advised to major in either a pre-medical program or biology, as coroner training typically requires a Bachelor’s Degree in a field related to this industry, from physiology, pathology and pre-medicine to anatomy, forensic science and criminology. This is why most students need to take college preparatory courses in computer applications, anatomy, health care and physiology prior to enrolling in a certified coroner training program.

After the undergraduate school, most coroner are advised to attend the medical school and to take classes and courses in microbiology, forensic anthropology and biology, anatomy as well as chemistry. In some cases, taking dentistry courses can turn out to be extremely beneficial for your future as a coroner as well. Working as a coroner offers you many different areas in which you can specialize, and you can choose one particular aspect of examination, be it law, forensic entomology or toxicology, for example. Once you have decided on the specialization that appeals to you the most, you can start getting your internship or your residency work with other certified or licensed coroners and medical examiners, as this will help you get a deeper insight into the job.

After you have completed your education, the next step and perhaps the most important one in the career of a coroner is to become state licensed and then pass all the medical board exams and the state examinations. Once you manage to do that, you can create your resume and start applying for a job as a coroner.

Certification

The rules and regulations for coroners can vary greatly from one state to another, and some of them have very strict requirements. Becoming a certified coroner or forensic pathologist requires a four-year undergraduate degree followed by completing the medical school and a four-year residency program and a one-year fellowship, as this will help you gather all the theoretical and the practical experience that you need for working as a coroner. Regarding the certification, you can sit for the certification exam that is administered by the American Board of Pathology. If you pass it, then you can get your certification and you can start working right away.

Coroner Salary In Canada, Australia And The United Kingdom

Trained and skilled coroners are very sought-after not only in the United States of America, but also in Canada, Australia as well as the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is known as one of the best countries to work as a coroner, as full-time coroners can easily earn between 80,000 and 100,000 pounds a year, provided that they are highly experienced. On the other hand, part-time coroners and deputy coroners in the UK can make anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 pounds a year, depending on their experience and the overall number of cases.

In Canada, however, the average yearly wage of a medical examiner or a coroner is of CA$50,000, while in Australia coroners typically make between AU$50,00 and AU$116,000, depending on their experience and training.

Verdict On Coroner Salary

Working as a coroner can certainly be very stressful and demanding, especially for beginners who have just gotten an entry-level job. As demanding as this might be, medical examiners do make a public service and they are very well-paid in certain states of the US. If you are driver by both the high salary and the passion you have for medicine, then becoming a coroner is undoubtedly worth investing your time and money in education, as this will pay off in the long run. If you plan to work outside the United States in the future, then you should know that the United Kingdom is one of the best choices as coroners get a very high average annual wage in this country.